During surgeries (e.g., surgeries of human bodies), it is typically necessary that the hands of a surgeon do not become unsterile by touching unsterilized objects.
In order to perform surgeries, proper illumination of the operation site is usually desired by the surgeon. This can be achieved by adjusting different parameters of the surgical lamp used to illuminate the operation site. Therefore, typically, a position and an orientation of the lamp body, the focus of the light rays emitted from the lamp to the operation site, and an intensity of the emitted light rays (i.e., the brightness of the illumination of the operation site) are adjustable. Typically, the surgeon modifies the position and the orientation of the lamp by grabbing the lamp body at a sterile handle cover that is pushed over a handle of the lamp body and physically moving the lamp into the desired position and into the desired orientation. By twisting the sterile handle cover, typically, the focus of the light rays (i.e., the distance of the intersecting point of the emitted light beams from the lamp body) is adjusted.
Adjustment of the brightness is normally not performed by the surgeon, but instead by other operation room personnel that have fewer requirements regarding sterility. Lamp brightness is typically adjusted by non-sterilized devices at the rim of the lamp body, at a carrying system, or at a wall operating unit. However, for this purpose, additional personnel are typically necessary, and obtaining a desired adjustment of the brightness can be more complicated due to the necessary communication between the surgeon and the personnel. Adjusting the brightness of the lamp in this manner can be dangerous, particularly, in critical operative situations and environments.
In order to address the problem, from EP-A-1 750 052, a sterilizable operating member which is attached to a lamp body, in addition to the sterilizable handle, is known, whereby additional functions (e.g., adjusting a light color temperature, adjusting a light distribution, or operating a camera) may be carried out in a sterile manner. However, using this device, an additional operating member is typically necessary due to the possibility of performing adjustments in several modes of operation and the surgeon possibly has to select the desired mode of operation. Therefore, this adjustment of a surgical lamp having only the adjustable functions for brightness and focus can divert the surgeon.